Milan, 16/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The environment ministers meeting in Milan on Wednesday 16 July said that the EU must speak with a single voice on the international stage and reach an internal agreement before October, as part of the Horizon 2030 energy/climate action framework. Their informal exchange of views on both the international plank of climate action and the internal arrangements to make it easier to reach the conclusion in Paris in December 2015 (COP 21) of an ambitious and legally binding global climate agreement brought progress towards providing substance to the stated target of the most recent European Council (see EUROPE 11110).
Ministers sketched out the main outlines of the unequivocal message the EU will deliver at the climate summit convened by Ban Ki-moon in New York on 23 September. The goal is to ensure EU visibility and meet the expectations of developing countries during this international event aimed at providing a catalyst for action and commitments from heads of state and government, industry, finance and civil society. They also expressed broad support for the legislative proposal in the climate/energy 2020-2030 framework action that seeks to establish a stability reserve on the carbon market up until 2021. Germany would even like implementation of this initiative to be implemented as early as 2017.
Addressing the press, Gian Luta Galletti, the president in office of the Environment Council summed up the progress made in the following terms: “We have prepared the EU's participation in the forthcoming international meetings, the first of which will be the summit organised by Ban Ki-moon on 23 September, in order to have a common position and speak with a single voice. We have witnessed the common determination to obtain concrete results after Lima, the final conference before the one in Paris. Many member states underlined the importance of going to Paris with an ambitious agreement. This is the objective of the Italian Presidency”. This was a message that provided reassurances to Manuel Pulgar-Vidal Otalora, the Peruvian minister chairing the COP 20 (Lima, December 2014) who took part in the session.
At the beginning of the meeting, Galletti called on all ministers to put aside selfish national interests and stated: “I believe that it is clear to us that the climate is not a responsibility that we can tackle purely from the technical point of view and by simply setting out objectives or signing protocols. It is, above all, a political and moral responsibility that we all bear. It is essential that, in October, the targets on emissions reduction, renewable energies and energy efficiency are clear. This involves sensitive choices being made due to the impact that they could have on the national economies”.
Connie Hedegaard, Commissioner for Climate Action, is confident and informed the press ahead of the ministerial talks that “we are definitely on the right track to decide on a new climate/energy package in October. If we succeed in adopting this decision the world is expecting from Europe, it will be a major accomplishment. It is possible”. She added that “Europe will do its job but all the major economies must do likewise before the end of the first quarter of 2015”. The strong and unambiguous message the EU will deliver in New York will focus on “what the EU is already doing, the fact that it has already gone beyond the 2020 target and what it intends to do in the future”. Hedegaard welcomed the announcement made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday during the Petersburg ministerial climate dialogue of “a substantial contribution of €750 million” ($1 billion) to the Green Climate Fund (up and running since the Warsaw conference but which has struggled to raise funds). The commissioner provided assurances that “more and more countries will be announcing their contributions” by November.
In response to a question about possibilities for bringing forward implementation of structural reform of the ETS, as sought by Germany, Hedegaard pointed out that this had not as yet been planned but neither was it being ruled out. She indicated that, “if a lot of member states want to introduce early implementation, it will be possible but qualified majority will be needed”. The commissioner was delighted with the “strong support” expressed for the proposed setting up of a market stability reserve. She underlined that the timetable for implementation is important because account has to be taken of the revenues that member states will be able to obtain from the ETS when calculating EU28 burden sharing. Member states will also have to “agree on the burden sharing principles before October”. (AN)